India is the
fastest growing major economy of the world, with a large pool of talented
manpower. But, it has been faring very bad in terms innovations, international
scientific publications and its investment in science and technology. It is
miles behind its Asian counterparts as well as most of the industrialized
countries of the world, in creating intellectual property viz patents,
trademarks, copyrights etc. Indeed appear very feeble, if we look at our
investment in research and development (R&D) which is less than 1% and even
below 0.9% of our GDP. While since 2003, we have been repetitively setting
targets, in vain to upscale our R&D investments to 2% of GDP. Inspite of
setting such ambitious target of spending 2% of GDP on R&D in our 10 year
science and technology policy of 2003 and of 2013, are at the same pedestal and
had to repeat the same rhetoric in the science and technology policy of 2003
and of 2013 that we would raise R&D investments to 2% of our GDP in another
span of 10 years. According to the data released by the World Intellectual
Property Organization (WIPO) India has seen a drop in international patent
applications to 1,423 under the Patent Cooperation Treaty in 2015, while US has
57,385, Japan (44,235), China (29,846) and Korea (14,626) figured in the top-10
list, registering a rise of 20%, 14% and 7%, respectively, from last year.
India fared no better in terms of global trademark filings as well, under the
Madrid System. It ranked 36th with only 150 trademarks filed in 2015, down from
153 in 2014, when it had seen a more than 70% increase in trademark
registrations. It shows a very miserable scene on the front of new product and brand
launches. Against a paltry figure of 150 filings, the trademark filings of the
US (7,340), Germany (6,831), France (4,021), China (2,401), Japan (2,205) are
14 to 48 times.
Data from the WIPO report, the breakthrough
innovation and economic growth, highlights that the IITs though endeavoring to
move ahead on research in nanotechnology with over 5,000 scientific papers and
14 patents since 1970 are yet miles behind China, as the Chinese Academy of
Sciences tops with 29,591 publications and 705 patent filings in neon
technology. The country has a long distance to go in promoting innovation and
research. The figure on comparing with China is embarrassing low for the elite
institutes, constituting an icon at home.
The reason for such a lack luster scene
is poor investments in R&D and lack of goal clarity among the premier
institutes of technology in the country, especially the IITs and NITs. In
response to a Parliamentary question 15 months back, the science and technology
minister Harsh Vardhan has accepted that the US and South Korea had invested
2.76% and 4.04% of their GDP respectively on research and development (R&D) compared to 0.88% by India. Even in
terms of 'purchasing power parity', Indian investment in science and technology
2014 was comparatively low. It had invested $36.2 billion whereas China, the US
and South Korea had invested $205.4 billion, $429.1 billion and $58.4 billion
respectively.
"The private sector contribution in
R&D as percentage of GDP in India is only one-third while two-third is
being contributed by the public sector. Private sector participation in India's
R&D has not kept pace with many developed and emerging countries in the
world," Dr. Harsh Vardhan informed the upper House. In absolute
terms, India's national R&D expenditure has been estimated to be around Rs 75,000
crores. Indeed, if India has to occupy a front rank among the
developed nations, it has to enhance investment in R&D. To ramp up
innovations, India needs to think of setting up industry consortiums for most
of the emerging areas of high tech manufacturing, in collaboration among
industry, academia and various R & D outfits of centre and states. India
may also think of framing a cooperative research law on the lines American “Cooperative
Research Act of 1984”. Under the present circumstances the consortium approach
can be a most feasible approach to enhance meaningful innovations, at a time when
India cannot raise the R & D expenses at 2% GDP, especially in view of the
poor tax GDP-ratio of around 10% for the centre, falling in the range of
sub-sahara Africa. To step-up cooperative research in India, technology
development cooperative associations and technology development cooperative
agreements need to be promoted. An environment of cooperation for pre-competitive
research among the competing firms, R & D organizations and academic
institutions needs to be emulated from the industrialized countries, where this
model of cooperation in pre-competitive research is successfully perpetuating
and flourishing. India can even outshine in making it a bigger means of success
for innovations.
